| Summary: | 碩士 === 佛光大學 === 佛教學系 === 99 === Abstract
Zhiyi 智顗 (538-597), the purported founder of the Tiantai school, contributed to the transition of Buddhism from India to China with his creative teachings and practices. In an attempt to reconstruct Zhiyi’s image and establish his status in Chinese Buddhism, his disciples wrote his biography in a way that parallels the Buddha’s life, and even went as far as to honor Zhiyi with the name, “the Little Śākya of the East”. Among Zhiyi’s innovative teachings, “mind contemplation” (guanxin 觀心) presents the essence of all his thoughts. The practice of mind contemplation is also the subject that Zhiyi returned to in his last sermon, entitled Treatise of Contemplating the Mind 觀心論. This treatise presented Zhiyi’s admonishment to his disciples, telling them to contemplate their minds, a practice through which they could realize the absolute reality (shixiang 實相) of all phenomena. An examination of the concept of contemplating the mind reveals that it is the product of Zhiyi’s creative interpretation of Buddha’s teachings, and represents the summit of Zhiyi’s thought.
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